Using Leaderboard Splits

Did you know that FanGraphs leaderboards featured splits? It’s a feature I feel goes underutilized, and thus I wanted to devote a post to it. There’s a ton of interesting tidbits you can pull from using the split options, and while the “month” options are interesting, the “Past 3 Calendar Years” filter has my eye. Here’s some of what I’ve learned from using it.

Albert Pujols pretty much owns at everything. Pujols leads all qualifiers in WPA (21.04) while only Lance Berkman (16.22) sits over 15, and only two handful of others sit above 10. The anti-Albert is Ivan Rodriguez (-5.3), fellow senior citizen Omar Vizquel (-4.58) sits in “second”, fellow “pudge” Yuniesky Betancourt (-4.09), and Jeff Francouer (-4.06) round out players with -4 or less WPA.

Pujols also leads the league in wOBA (.442) and wRAA, and wRC, and basically everything that matters. Chipper Jones (.438) is second and the rest of the top five includes David Oritz (.438), Alex Rodriguez (.421), and Matt Holliday (.420). Following our theme of the good and the bad, the bottom five are Omar Vizquel (.295), Jason Kendall (.298), Pedro Feliz (.303), Yuniesky Betancourt (.307), and Khalil Greene (.308).

Some other offensive stats:

BB%
Best: Pat Burrell (17.7%), Adam Dunn (17.2%), Jim Thome (17.1%), Ortiz (16.5%), Todd Helton (16.1%)
Worst: Betancourt (2.9%), Bengie Molina (3.6%), I. Rodriguez (3.8%), Jose Lopez (4%), A.J. Pierzynski (4.2%)

K%
Best: Juan Pierre (5.7%), Placido Polanco (6.2%), Betancourt (8.9%), Kendall (9.1%), B. Molina (9.4%)
Worst: Ryan Howard (33.5%), Dunn (32.7%), Thome (30%), Bill Hall (29.6%), Mike Cameron (28.3%)

BABIP
Best: Derek Jeter (.367), Holliday (.365), C. Jones (.361), Ichiro Suzuki (.359), Miguel Cabrera (.353)
Worst: Andruw Jones (.255), Pedro Feliz (.261), Ken Griffey Jr. (.272), Greene (.273), Kevin Millar (.275)

LD%
Best: Mark Loretta (25.3%), Michael Young (24.8%), Freddy Sanchez (24.7%), Helton (23.7%), Chone Figgins (23.2%)
Worst: Gary Matthews Jr. (15.9%), Feliz (16%), Dan Uggla (16.1%), Luis Castillo (16.2%), Jason Bay (16.3%)

O-Swing%
Best: Castillo (12.9%), Brian Giles (14.8%), Bobby Abreu (15.7%), Troy Glaus (15.9%), C. Jones (16.2%)
Worst: Vladimir Guerrero (43.9%), Pierzynski (39.1%), I. Rodriguez (38.5%), Alfonso Soriano (37.3%), B. Molina (36.7%)

Contact%
Best: Pierre (94.5%), Castillo (94%), Polanco (93.6%), B. Giles (92.7%), Vizquel (91.9%)
Worst: Howard (66.4%), Thome (71.3%), Dunn (71.4%), A. Jones (72.1%), Brad Hawpe (72.3%)

Dollars
Best: Pujols ($100), Chase Utley ($93.1), David Wright ($84.5), Grady Sizemore ($81.3), Alex Rodriguez ($81.2)
Worst: Griffey Jr. ($0.8), Melky Cabrera ($1.8), Millar ($3.1), Jose Bautista ($3.5), Craig Biggio ($3.7)

Try using the leaderboards yourself to look at the last three years of defensive and pitching performances.